Yard Sales…require commitment…dedication…tenacity…sticktoitiveness…and a total disconnect from any personal attachment you might have to the items in the yard sale.

I have been dodging the subject and ducking my responsibility…of my promise to organize and oversee a yard sale. The ducking and dodging are over…I committed to a date…scheduled an entire weeks vacation…wrote it on the calendar…and even spoke it out loud so that I could actually be held accountable.

I knew the task would be an uphill challenge…I knew there were heaps upon heaps of boxes and bags…waiting to be unpacked and shown the light of day.

So it began on Tuesday morning…tables were set up and the sorting commenced…a large trash can was at the ready for the bits and pieces that should have found their way to the circular file eons ago…a bucket of water, cleaning supplies, rags, gloves and safety goggles…

The hubs arranged for me to have a couple of young men with strong backs help with all of the heavy lifting…and so the unpacking and sorting began.

Day 1…I was feeling good about the challenge…after 5 hours of steady unpacking and sorting I was feeling like this was doable. I went home tired and sweaty and I slept like a baby.

Day 2…Again I was feeling good about the previous days progress…after another 5 hours of steady unpacking and sorting I was beginning to wonder why on earth did I agree to have a yard sale…the yard sale space was looking like a tornado had swept through and I was feeling much the same. I went home really tired, really sweaty…I did not sleep as well as I would have liked…

Day 3…not feeling so enthusiastic today…actually I was feeling a bit overwhelmed…more boxes still waiting for me to unpack and sort…You know that point in a reorganization project when things look really bad right before they look really good…this was the moment…and now I was seriously wondering why I hadn’t just called a few of the local charities that do curbside pickup…by 1pm the unpacking was done and the pricing game began…I priced the big-ticket items with signs I made on the computer…and then I priced the medium size items with the store-bought yard sale stickers and I left most of the little things without prices…I figured the yardsale shoppers were going to want to play “Lets make a Deal” so why bother pricing the items.

The area where we had our yard sale was a 1200 sq.ft covered area and it was packed out… it was organized much like a resale shop would be with like items arranged together…I even set up the furniture in a way that the shoppers could visualize the pieces in an actual living room or dining room setting…

Day 1 of the actual sale we sold most of the Big Boy Toys; a 16′ scanoe with 2.5hp motor, gas grill, smoker, paintball equipment and camping gear. Day 2 we sold all of the furniture and a wide variety of miscellaneous household items. I attribute our success to the fact that we put our yard sale notice in three seperate community papers, put out lots of signs directing shoppers to our sale and shamelessly promoting it on my facebook page.

Now the sale is over…it was successful as yard sales go…at least until I stop and think about the fact that I just sold our stuff for pennies on the dollar….anyway its out-of-the-way and we have a little vacation money to put aside…now I have to pack up the leftovers and drop them off at the local resale shops that benefit the SPCA, Habitat for Humanity and GoodWill.

Yard Sales…I would much rather shop someone elses yard sale than organize one of my own.